Mario Piperni and the Conservative Gameplan

CPAC and Tea Party Politics

Former Bush strategist Matthew Dowd has a thought or two on CPAC’s decision to not invite Chris Christie to the conservative’s March hate-fest.

“CPAC, to me, has totally diminished its credibility as an organization,” Dowd said. “And you invite Sarah Palin, who wasn’t competent enough to keep a Fox News contract? But she’s invited to a CPAC meeting?”

It’s a valid point and one has to wonder how it is that conservatives still haven’t worked out why it is they lost last November. It isn’t difficult. Three words: tea party idiocy. It’s not the only reason but it certainly is an important one. Teabaggers pushed the party to adopt policy on immigration, social programs, the economy and women’s reproductive rights that can only be described as suicidal madness. In each case, a majority of Americans rejected the Tea Party agenda put forward by Mitt Romney and in turn Republicans lost the Latino vote, the Asian vote, the African American vote, the women’s vote and the youth vote.

Four months later, instead of licking their wounds and learning from the experience, CPAC organizers decide to reject a semi-moderate conservative who just happens to be the most popular governor in the country. Instead they go with a bunch of crackpots and rejects, all of whom are featured speakers at CPAC.

In all fairness to CPAC, when it comes to finding competent and intelligent individuals to speak at their gathering, there isn’t much to choose from beyond the scrapheap of nutjobs and wingers who have taken control of the Republican party. But that’s fine. Any political party that rejects a Chris Christie or Jon Huntsman in favor of divisive, hatemongering teabaggers like Cruz and West deserves to have their clocks cleaned again in the next election…and the one after that…and the one after that.